Pickleball courts built for St. Louis ground

We build pickleball courts across the St. Louis area: new backyard courts, multi-court builds for HOAs, clubs and churches, tennis-to-pickleball conversions, resurfacing, and the fencing and lighting that go with them. Every court we build starts from the same fact about this region — the ground moves. St. Louis clay swells when it's wet, frost reaches 30 inches, and winter brings dozens of nights that freeze and afternoons that thaw. We choose the slab, base and footings for that ground, not for a brochure climate.

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Site visit before any price · Free, written, itemized quotes · Your city's court rules checked first · Acrylic or modular tile, built by a crew with more than a decade of courts behind it

What are you building?

A court in your own yard. A full-size pad, a slab chosen for your soil, an acrylic surface, a fence your city allows, and a plan for the neighbors. → Backyard pickleball courts

Courts for a community. Two to eight courts for a subdivision, swim club, church or apartment community, sited for noise and bid so your board can compare. → HOA and community courts

A better court from the one you have. Four pickleball courts on an old tennis slab, or a cracked court brought back. → Tennis-to-pickleball conversion · Resurfacing and repair

Also: multi-sport courts with half-court basketball, and lighting and fencing designed to your city's limits.

The St. Louis court that survives St. Louis

Most court-building advice online is written for places where the ground doesn't move. Here it does:

• Clay that swells. The Missouri Geological Survey recorded swelling pressures above 3,300 pounds per square foot in St. Louis County's residual clays. A slab on that ground gets pushed.
• Frost to 30 inches. That's the depth cited for St. Louis County and written into St. Charles County's code. Post and pole footings go below it.
• Freeze-thaw, all winter. NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for Lambert show about 85 days a year at or below freezing and only about 19 that stay frozen all day — roughly 66 freeze-thaw days by our arithmetic.

That's why we usually recommend a post-tension concrete slab for a court you'll keep: steel tendons hold it in compression, so it needs no control joints and resists cracking from soil movement. Where budget rules, we build asphalt honestly and tell you what maintenance to expect. The full comparison is in our slab guide.

The two things St. Louis buyers worry about

Noise. In Kirkwood, sound studies of four club courts built about 60 feet from homes reported exceedances of the county noise standard, and the dispute ran through the courts until 2026. We site every court for sound first — distance, buildings in between, quiet equipment, hours. Read the noise guide.

Permits. St. Louis County has 88 municipalities plus the unincorporated county, and they don't agree. Some allow 15-foot court fences; some cap fences at 6 feet. Several ban court lights on residential lots. Some send the court itself to a commission. We read your city's code before we price the job. See the permits guide.

What it costs

Published Midwest ranges put a new court at $25,000–$45,000 on asphalt and $45,000–$80,000+ on post-tension concrete, per court. A tennis-to-pickleball conversion runs $5,000–$15,000; resurfacing, $4,000–$8,000. These are published figures, not our prices. Your written quote comes from your site. See the cost guide or get a ballpark from the instant quote.

How it works

1. Tell us about the project on the quote form — city, yard or site, what you want, when.
2. Site visit. Our court crew measures the space and checks grade, drainage, access, utilities and neighbors' windows.
3. Written quote. Every line itemized: base, slab, surface, fence, drainage, permits, schedule.
4. Approvals. HOA, then city.
5. Build. Site work and slab; a 28-day cure for concrete; coating on dry days at 50°F and rising; fence, net and cleanup.

The building season for coatings runs roughly mid-April to mid-October. Average freeze dates at Lambert are April 2 and November 2.

Our court crew is a family-owned court builder that has built courts across Missouri and Illinois for more than a decade, and hundreds of them: backyard and community pickleball, basketball and multi-sport courts, outdoors and indoors. The crew is an authorized installer for a modular court-tile system and backs the courts it builds with lifetime support.

Where we build

St. Louis City and County, St. Charles, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln and Warren counties, and Madison and St. Clair counties in Illinois. Local rules by area: locations.

Start with the guide

If you're early in planning, read the complete St. Louis court construction guide. It covers the ground, the slab, the surface, drainage, permits, noise, cost and the season. All our planning guides are on the guides page.

Get a quote

Tell us what you want to build and where. We'll visit the site and send a written quote. Get a quote.